Hope
by LaZeRsTaR
Summary: Eliza and Decat have lived in Lacunosa Town for two years ever since Eliza's eighteenth birthday, and they haven't gone on any adventures or fought any evil organizations. However, when a group of people called Team Plasma suddenly take over Unova and demand that everyone release their Pokémon, the two'll have to do something if they want to stay together.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

The Delcatty darted to the edge of the bridge, and taking a deep breath, leapt.

Now, even a Delcatty that wasn't as smart as this one would know that jumping off a bridge wasn't a smart idea, but this Delcatty did have a reason.

His best friend had just been shot off it.

He didn't hear, really, anything. He could imagine that there was some yelling, either that of a Pokémon's or a humans, but his ears were blocking out the noise.

He couldn't see his friend as he fell, but he had an idea that she was sinking to the bottom of the sea, and quickly. He straightened himself out, and when he hit the water, he hardly made a splash.

The cold saltwater instantly made his fur heavy and he began to sink as well. It burned to keep his eyes open, but it he didn't he wouldn't be able to find her. He began to paddle deeper and deeper.

Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, the light only penetrated the water so far, and the Delcatty was swimming into darkness. He knew that he hardly had any time left as it was, for a Delcatty does not have very large lungs.

And then, he saw her.

She was going more slowly than he, but she was barely conscious and merely floating. He grabbed the scruff of her t-shirt, and with all his might, began to swim upward.

A normal Delcatty wouldn't have made it more than a couple inches before collapsing, but this Delcatty wasn't a normal one. He was stronger than most, due to his hybridization, and he was more loyal to this human than he would be to any Pokémon. After all, this human had saved his life.

But even though he was strong, he knew that if he didn't breathe air any second now, he would go unconscious.

He closed his eyes, and used Last Resort.

The move gave him enough energy to burst through the water, and as he did so, he took a deep breath through his nose. He strained everything he had, and managed to get his friend's head up above the water for a couple moments. He was relieved to see her take a shuddering breath.

They weren't really that far away from land, but the Delcatty's energy was now at an all-time low. If he fainted, it would be the end of both of them, but there was very little keeping him from doing so.

He prepared to begin to swim, lifting his friend's head up above the water once again, when he suddenly felt something grab him by the scruff and he went soaring into the air, barely managing to keep a grip on his friend.

They landed back on the bridge with a thud. The Delcatty began to shudder, for the water combined with the cool air was freezing. He looked down at his friend, and ignoring the thing that had dragged him out of the water, began to press his paws on her shoulder, where the shot had hit her.

"Why don't you quit?" a voice behind him asked. The Delcatty didn't look up, just began to tear up his friend's jeans and use that to hopefully stop the bleeding.

"If you just leave your friend here now, you can go a free Pokémon," the voice continued. "If you continue to help your friend, though, you'll only be transported to our headquarters for interrogation and experimentation."

"Yeah, right," the Delcatty hissed. "You'd take me to your headquarters for experimentation even if I did abandon my friend. It's the only reason why you saved me."

The speaker was silent for a moment, and the Delcatty took that moment to angrily growl, "It wouldn't be worth it. We've been through too much together for me to just jump off the bandwagon of our crazy lives."

"You're going to regret it," the speaker said.

Suddenly, the Delcatty felt something (he presumed the thing that had rescued him from the water) grab him and begin to slam him into the ground. It only took two hits for the already exhausted Pokémon to faint.

His last thought was he was really lucky that the speaker hadn't killed him on the spot.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

_Much, much earlier…_

When Eliza heard the knock at her door, she knew she was in trouble.

Earlier that day, she and her Delcatty (Decat) had been out and about, enjoying Eliza's day off, when Decat had burst away from her yowling that he had to go find her a birthday present. It was true that her birthday was soon, but Decat never had gotten her anything before—not even when she had turned eighteen.

But she had been home for hours now, and Decat hadn't returned. He knew where her apartment was, after all, and it wasn't like he would have gotten lost. He knew his way around Lacunosa Town like the bottom of his paw.

The thing that had truly worried her, though, was that Team Plasma was in town. They wouldn't doanything to Decat, but Decat might do something to them.

The Delcatty absolutely hated Team Plasma. He found them hypocritical, sinister, and just plain stupid. Eliza didn't really have much of an opinion on them, but she wished that Decat wasn't so…vocal about his distaste.

Decat could actually talk, after all.

And so, when whoever was out there knocked on her door, she had a feeling it had to do with her MIA friend.

She opened the door, and there stood a man holding Decat by the scruff. She recognized him, as the one who often spoke for the organization at their rallies. "I presume this is your friend," he said holding Decat out towards her.

Eliza instantly grabbed the oddly-colored Delcatty out of the man's grip. "What has he done?" she asked coldly.

The man glared at Decat, and said, "Nothing more than yell belittling things and attempt to…mark his territory—"

"Decat!" Eliza snapped, interrupting the man. "You know that you're not allowed to do that!"

Decat simply snarled, "Those idiots deserve it."

Eliza glared at Decat before turning to face the man again. "Please excuse my Delcatty's behavior," she said. "He is…not really a fan of your organization."

The man's gaze remained cold as he asked, "This here is a very interesting Delcatty. How did he come to be this way?"

Eliza was quiet for a moment, and then finally muttered, "I don't know. Good day to you."

The man stepped back, and Eliza shut the door.

"Decat, for Arceus' sake, please don't do things like that," Eliza groaned. "That's exactly the kind of thing that will bring unwanted attention to us."

The Delcatty rolled his eyes and meowed, "I wouldn't have done it, but those hypocrites need to be taught a lesson."

Eliza groaned. "Decat, I don't know why you've decided that it's your mission to get in these people's ways. I honestly don't think they're much of a threat."

The Delcatty blinked and asked, "Have you even ever watched the reports people do on Team Plasma? They've beat people up when the person refuses to release their Pokémon! That's not even half of it—"

"And have they beaten me up?" Eliza asked, cutting the Delcatty off. "No, they haven't. They've given me no reason to fight with them, so I won't."

The Delcatty muttered something inaudible under his breath. He padded away from Eliza and leapt onto the ugly, overstuffed couch that sat before the two's tiny television.

Eliza sighed, and headed off to the small room that was hers. The apartment was tiny—there were three rooms. One was a kitchen/dining room, one acted as Decat's room and the "living room" (although all either resident did there was watch television), and the final one was Eliza's.

Shutting the door behind her, she proceeded to flop down onto the small bed and let out a moan. She had thought that moving to Unova would be great for her and Decat, but problems after problems just continued to appear. Not only was this Team Plasma causing Decat to act like a pest, but she was almost certain that the job she currently had wouldn't last long.

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, as it usually would. The two made up, watched some basketball, and ate (in Eliza's case) microwaved dinner.

However, neither one had any way of knowing as they set off to bed at ten o'clock sharp, a young woman named White would reawaken the legendary Zekrom and fight against the leader of Team Plasma, N.

Neither one had any way of knowing that White would fail to defeat Team Plasma because of a sinister trick, either.

Usually, the loud cries of Pokémon owned by the person who lived next door to the two woke Eliza and Decat up, but today, the cries were gone.

Decat was awake first, and when he noticed that it was ten-fifteen instead of seven, he panicked. He wasn't a naïve Pokémon, and he knew that Eliza was skating on thin ice with her current job.

He instantly raced from the overstuffed couch into Eliza's room and yowled (at the top of his lungs), "GET UP!"

Eliza jolted awake and fell out of bed with a yelp. "What the heck was that for?!" Eliza demanded, glaring up at Decat.

"We slept in!" he yowled.

Eliza's eyes widened and she sprung to her feet. "What?" she asked. "That's impossible! The Liepard next door is never late, not even when she's sick—"

"There's no time to speculate!" Decat hissed. "Get dressed and _go_!"

Decat usually didn't act like this, so Eliza didn't think that he was making it up. She raced to the dresser, grabbed a white t-shirt, and slid it on as she continued on to the closet. Not really caring if what she wore matched, she snatched a pair of jeans from a hanger (causing it to topple to the ground.) She then raced out of the room.

Decat sighed, relieved, and slumped down onto Eliza's bed. At least she wouldn't be too late. Eliza had to be at work at ten, and she had friends who would cover for her for at least fifteen minutes.

Hearing the apartment door slam, Decat leapt off of the bed and stretched, letting out a yawn. Usually he didn't go running around right after he woke up, and the sudden and unscheduled exercise made him want to flop down and go back to sleep.

But Decat didn't flop down and go back to sleep, because he knew that he had to check the news. Eliza almost never did, and all she wanted to know about was sports. Decat actually wanted to know what was happening in Unova, and if there was any way he could get involved with it.

The Delcatty leapt up onto the overstuffed couch and clicked the remote with his front paws. The channel hardly ever was changed, but something Decat had never seen before was on.

It was an animation of a fat man wearing a shirt that said "trainer" actually attacking a small Pokémon that Decat guessed was supposed to be the legendary Victini. He was laughing in a sickening way, and Decat instantly changed the channel.

To his horror, the same terrible thing was on the next channel. Decat prepared to change it again when suddenly, the animation froze. "This is how it was, before today," a voice (that Decat felt like he had heard before) echoed from the TV.

The animation unfroze, and a great ball of fire fell from the sky and vaporized the cruel man. The Victini smiled and looked up into the sky.

Decat's eyes widened when he saw that the Victini was smiling at a young man who sat atop another legendary Pokémon: Reshiram. The Victini then said, "Thank you, Team Plasma!"

_Of course! _Decat thought. He let out a growl and switched the channel again.

But the same thing was on there, too.

"Yesterday night, our Lord N defeated the Pokémon League with the help of Reshiram, the legendary Pokémon of truth," the voice that Decat guessed was the narrator said. "He is now the champion of Unova.

Decat blinked. "What…?" he muttered, wondering why Team Plasma was telling this lie.

Suddenly, the animation vanished and a video recording of the same young man (who looked practically the same as he had in the animation) with a very, very real Reshiram behind him.

"Hello," the young man said. "My name is N. Now that I am the champion of Unova, you all have to listen to me and my friends." He rose from the throne-like seat he sat in, and said, "Pokémon and humans shall be separated! It is the truth, isn't it?"

The camera zoomed in on Reshiram, who nodded slowly.

"So, people of Unova, as your new champion, I command you to release your friends," N said, the camera zooming back out. "I hope that no one is foolish enough to disobey this command. After all…"

He looked up at Reshiram, and finished, "I have the power of a friend that could easily make you change your mind."

The video then cut off. A second later, the animation reappeared and began again.

Decat slowly pressed the "off" button on the remote. He rubbed his eyes and muttered, "It can't be true."

A second later, the door opened and someone (who Decat guessed was Eliza) rushed in. "Decat, we have a problem!" Eliza yelled. The Delcatty peeked over the edge of the couch and saw that Eliza was trying to close the door, but there was someone trying to force it open.

The Delcatty instantly leapt off the couch and raced to the door. He closed his eyes, and then with all his might slammed himself into the door, causing it to slam shut.

"What's going on?" he asked as whoever was behind the door pounded at it.

Eliza sighed, and said, "Well, I got fired for being late."

Decat blinked, a little confused. Why would someone be chasing Eliza because she got fired? "And then…I punched my boss in the face," Eliza continued slowly.

"What?" Decat asked, shocked.

"And then I punched him in the stomach…and then I pushed him into the place where you buy ice," Eliza finished.

"What?" Decat asked again. "Why'd you do all that?"

"He said that I could keep my job if I got rid of you," Eliza muttered. "That idiot thought I cared more about that stupid job than you."

Decat was quiet as Eliza continued to spitefully mutter, "That's just ridiculous…why would he think he had the authority to make me let you go?"

"Eliza, I think you need to see this," Decat murmured. He leaped back to the couch and pressed the remote.

The video played through, and at the end of it, Eliza let out a groan. "This isn't good…this is definitely not good…"

Suddenly, there was a loud crash. The two turned around and saw that the door had been broken down. Two Team Plasma grunts stood in the doorway, a Watchog in front of them.

"Eliza Hunt, you are under arrest for assault and the illegal ownage of Pokémon. Put your hands above your head and make no sudden movements," the first one said.

Eliza slowly raised her hands, but Decat snarled, "Get the hell out of here!" He leapt up into the air, and fired a beam of ice at the grunts and the Watchog.

The blast froze the Watchog, and in that time Decat hissed, "Run!"

The two rushed out of the door, the two grunts still stunned by the attack.

_We're screwed, _Decat thought. _We are so, so screwed._

* * *

**AN: **I finally got the first chapter up. *yay*

I promise that next time it won't take me as long as this has. If you've got any questions, I'll gladly answer them.

-LaZeR


End file.
